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Technical Site Audit Checklist Posted: 22 May 2011 02:30 PM PDT Posted by Geoff Kenyon We all want to deliver actionable site audits, but doing the research can be a bit overwhelming if you don’t have a process in place to systematically go through a site. I have created a site audit checklist that will walk you through how to do a site audit. This will work for most sites - in many cases you will need to customize the checklist a bit as some aspects won't be relevant or are unable to be changed.   Make sure to look at really important pages (high priority landing pages, pages with a lot of links, pages flagged by crawl tools, or pages that the client has specifically asked for help with) in addition to the template pages.   At the end of your audit, don’t write a document that says what’s wrong with the website. Instead, create a document that says what needs to be done. Then explain why these actions need to be taken and why they are important. What seems to be really helpful is to provide a prioritized list along with your document of all the actions that you would like them to implement. This list can be handed off to a dev or content team to be implemented easily. These teams can refer to your more thorough document as needed.   Quick Overview Check indexed pages   Do a site: search How many pages are returned (this can be way off so don’t put too much stock in this)? Is the homepage showing up as the first result? If the homepage isn’t showing up as the first result, there could be issues, like a penalty or poor site architecture/internal linking, affecting the site. Search for the brand and branded terms Is the homepage showing up at the top, or are correct pages showing up. If the proper pages aren’t showing up as the first result, there could be issues, like a penalty, in play. Check Google’s cache for key pages Is the content showing up? Are navigation links present? Are there links that aren't visible on the site? PRO Tip: Don't forget to check the text only version of the cached page. Content Homepage content Does the homepage have at least one paragraph? Landing pages Do these pages have at least a few paragraphs? Is it template text or is it completely unique? Site contains real and substantial content Is there real content on the site or is the “content” simply a list of links. Proper keyword targeting Is the intent right? Are there pages targeting head terms, mid-tail, and long-tail keywords? Keyword cannibalization Do a site: search Google for important keyword phrases. Check for duplicate content/page titles in the SEOmoz Pro Campaign App. Formatting Is the content formatted well and easy to read quickly? Are H tags used? Are images used? Is the text broken down into easy to read paragraphs? Good Headlines on Blog Posts Good headlines go a long way. Make sure the headlines are well written and draw users in. Amount of content v ads Since the implementation of Panda, the amount of ad-space on a page has become important to evaluate. Make sure there is significant unique content above the fold. If you have more ads than unique content, you are probably going to have a problem.   Additional Reading: How to Write Magnetic Headlines SEO Copywriting Tips for Improved Link Building The Ultimate Blogger Writing Guide Tips to Earn Links and Tweets to Your Blog Post Duplicate Content There should be one URL for each piece of content Do URLs include parameters or tracking code - This will result in multiple URLs for a piece of content. Does the same content reside on completely different URLs? Pro Tip: Exclude common parameters, such as those used to designate tracking code, in Google Webmaster Tools. Read more at Search Engine Land. Do a search to check for duplicate content Take a content snippet, put it in quotes and search for it. Does the content show up elsewhere on the domain? Has it been scraped? - If the content has been scraped, you should file a content removal request with Google. Sub-domain duplicate content Does the same content exist on different sub-domains? Check for a secure version of the site Does the content exist on a secure version of the site? Check other sites owned by the company Is the content replicated on other domains owned by the company? Accessibility Check the robots.txt Has the entire site, or important content been blocked? Is link equity being orphaned due to pages being blocked via the robots.txt? Turn off JavaScript, cookies, and CSS Use the Web Developer Toolbar Is the content there? Do the navigation links work? Now change your user agent to Googlebot. Use the User Agent Add-on Are they cloaking? Does it look the same as before? PRO Tip: Use SEO Browser to do a quick spot check. Check the SEOmoz PRO Campaign Check for 4xx errors and 5xx errors. Site Architecture Hierarchy Are category pages set up in the appropriate way to flow link equity to key pages? Landing pages Do they have landing pages high enough in the architecture to receive enough link equity to compete for competitive terms? Number of category pages How many category pages are there? Have they been scaled out too much? Category pages should be built out only when there is enough demand for new or sub category pages. Pagination/Faceted Navigation Is pagination or faceted navigation more appropriate? Or, should they be used in tandem? Does pagination exist to help long tail content get indexed? Is the pagination prohibitive to crawling (uses JavaScript). Number of clicks to content Pages targeting really competitive head terms should be one or two clicks from the homepage. Pages targeting moderately competitive keywords should be 2 or three clicks from the homepage. Pages targeting the long tail should be 5 clicks away (obviously exceptions must be made here for sites with a ton of content). Prioritized content Most important content should be higher up in the pagination Additional Reading: Successful Site Architecture for SEO The SEO Guide to Site Architecture Information Architecture and Faceted Navigation Technical Issues Proper use of 301’s Are 301’s being used for all redirects? If the root is being directed to a landing page, are they using a 301 instead of a 302? Use Live HTTP Headers FireFox plugin to check 301s. Use of JavaScript Is content being served in JavaScript? Are links being served in JavaScript? Is this to do PR sculpting or is it accidental? Use of iframes Is content being pulled in via iframes? Use of Flash Is the entire site done in flash, or is flash used sparingly in a way that doesn’t hinder crawling? PRO Tip: Flash is like garlic. A little bit of garlic in your food can make it taste better. Eating a plate full of garlic would be quite terrible. Likewise, Flash can be added to a site in a way that improves the user's experience, but creating the entire site in flash is not a good idea. Site Speed How long does the page take to load - Is it significant for users or search engines? What improvements can be made? Alt text Is alt text present? Does the alt text use keyword phrases? Does the alt text reinforce the topical themes presented in the content? Check for Errors in Google Webmaster Tools Google WMT will give you a good list of technical problems showing up on your site that they are encountering (such as: 4xx and 5xx errors, inaccessible pages in the XML sitemap, and soft 404's) Canonicalization Canonical version of the site established through 301’s   Canonical version of site is specified in Google Webmaster Tools   Rel canonical link tag is properly implemented across the site Make sure it points to the correct page, and every page doesn't point to the homepage. Uses absolute URLs instead of relative URLs This can cause a lot of problems if you have a root domain with secure sections. URLs Clean URLs No excessive parameters or session ID’s URLs exposed to search engines should be static. Short URLs 115 characters or shorter – this character limit isn’t set in stone, but shorter URLs are better for usability. Descriptive URLs Get your primary keyword phrase in there. Additional Reading: Best Practices for URLs URL Rewriting Tool mod_rewrite Cheat Sheet Creating 301 Redirects With .htaccess Internal Linking Number of links on a page 100 is a good target, but not a rule. Vertical Links Homepage links to category pages. Category pages link to sub-category and product pages as appropriate. Product pages link to relevant category pages. Horizontal Links Category pages link to other relevant category pages. Product pages link to other relevant product pages. Links are in content Does not utilize massive blocks of links stuck in the content to do internal linking. Footer links Does not use a block of footer links instead of proper navigation. Does not link to landing pages with optimized anchors. Good internal anchor text   Check for broken links Link Checker and Xenu are good tools for this. Additional Reading: Importance of Internal Linking Internal Linking Tactics Using Anchor Links to Make Google Ignore The First Link Title Tags Unique title tags Every page should have a unique title tag. Keyword rich Pages should contain the primary keyword phrase. Is possible to use the secondary keyword phrase in a non spammy way? Primary keyword phrase at the beginning of the title tag   Page titles include branding In most cases the brand should be included at the end of the page title to help build a brand or entice users if you are a well known brand 65 - 70 characters in length If the title is longer than this, the entirety will not be displayed in the SERPs. Have they been keyword stuffed by someone else?   Meta Tags Meta keywords tag used This data should be removed as competitors can scrape this data. Meta description is appropriate Each page has a unique meta description. Meta descriptions are representative of the content and entice users. Rewrite meta descriptions for key pages For key landing pages, write meta descriptions by hand instead of systemically implementing. Meta robots tag Noindex pages only appropriate pages. Not blocking important pages. Helpful tools for doing a site audit: Web Developer Toolbar User Agent Add-on Firebug Link Checker SEObook Toolbar SEOmoz Toolbar Xenu Screaming Frog Your own scraper   Do you like this post? Yes No

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